“FATF Accession Impossible If Found to Be against Iran’s National Interests”

Mohammad-Reza Pourebrahimi, the Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Economic Commission, has touched upon the concerns of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council about the FATF.

“The FATF will definitely lead to commitments for our country, and if those commitments run counter to our country’s national interests, we won’t accept them,” he noted, as quoted by the Persian-language Mashregh News website.

The legislator stressed that laws in Iran are based on transparency.

“Before the discussions on the FATF began, the Parliament had ratified laws, including one on fighting the financing of terrorism, which are in keeping with the FATF,” he said.

The lawmaker was asked about the original timeline, i.e. December 2017, when the FATF was supposed to go into effect in Iran. In response, he said, “Given that certain conditions need to be approved in order for our country to join the convention, the Islamic Republic will decide on that without setting any specific timeline and based on its national interests,” he underlined.

“As far as the FATF is concerned, the Economic Commission will certainly take the country’s national interests into account, and will present the prepared report to the Supreme National Security Council as well,” he said.

The parliamentarian said the FATF report has been drawn up and is awaiting final approval.

The report was prepared after the government presented to lawmakers several bills on fighting efforts to sponsor terrorism and tackling money-laundering, which were in line with the FATF, he added.

“After the bills were presented to Parliament, the legislature’s Presiding Board referred the bills to the Judicial and Legal Commission, and we are waiting for the commission to announce its final viewpoint about the bills, and if the commission’s report is deemed insufficient, the Economic Commission will present its report in an open session of Parliament,” said the MP.